Reclaim Mayday for anarchism

Anarkismo.net was launched for Mayday 2005 so this Mayday represents our first birthday.

On the anniversary of the first May Day, we must apply our
anarchist ideas to everyday life and the class struggle, inside and
outside industry, in order to make anarchism a possibility

On the anniversary of the first May Day, we must apply our
anarchist ideas to everyday life and the class struggle, inside and
outside industry, in order to make anarchism a possibility

Reclaim May Day!

May 1st is a day of special significance for the labour movement.
While it has been hijacked in the past by the Stalinist bureaucracy
in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, the labour movement festival of
May Day is a day of world-wide solidarity. A time to remember past
struggles and demonstrate our hope for a better future. A day to
remember that an injury to one is an injury to all.

The history of Mayday is closely linked with the anarchist
movement and the struggles of working people for a better world.
Indeed, it originated with the execution of four anarchists in
Chicago in 1886 for organising workers in the fight for the
eight-hour day. Thus May Day is a product of "anarchy in
action" -- of the struggle of working people using direct
action in labour unions to change the world ("Anarchism . . .
originated in everyday struggles" -- Kropotkin)

It began in the 1880s in the USA. In 1884, the Federation of
Organised Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada
(created in 1881, it changed its name in 1886 to the American
Federation of Labor) passed a resolution which asserted that
"eight hours shall constitute a legal day's work from and after
May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labour organisations throughout
this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to this
resolution." A call for strikes on May 1st, 1886 was made in
support of this demand.

In Chicago the anarchists were the main force in the union
movement, and partially as a result of their presence, the unions
translated this call into strikes on May 1st. The anarchists thought
that the eight hour day could only be won through direct action and
solidarity. They considered that struggles for reforms, like the
eight hour day, were not enough in themselves. They viewed them as
only one battle in an ongoing class war that would only end by social
revolution and the creation of a free society. It was with these
ideas that they organised and fought.

In Chicago alone, 400 000 workers went out and the threat of
strike action ensured that more than 45 000 were granted a shorter
working day without striking. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a
crowd of pickets at the McCormick Harvester Machine Company, killing
at least one striker, seriously wounding five or six others, and
injuring an undetermined number. Anarchists called for a mass meeting
the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality. According
to the Mayor, "nothing had occurred yet, or looked likely to occur
to require interference." However, as the meeting was breaking up
a column of 180 police arrived and ordered the meeting to end. At
this moment a bomb was thrown into the police ranks, who opened fire
on the crowd. How many civilians were wounded or killed by the police
was never exactly ascertained.

A reign of terror swept over Chicago. Meeting halls, union
offices, printing shops and private homes were raided (usually
without warrants). Such raids into working-class areas allowed the
police to round up all known anarchists and other socialists. Many
suspects were beaten up and some bribed. "Make the raids first and
look up the law afterwards" was the public statement of J.
Grinnell, the States Attorney, when a question was raised about
search warrants.

Eight anarchists were put on trial for accessory to murder. No
pretence was made that any of the accused had carried out or even
planned the bomb. Instead the jury were told "Law is on trial.
Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the
Grand Jury, and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more
guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury;
convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our
institutions, our society." The jury was selected by a special
bailiff, nominated by the State's Attorney and was composed of
businessmen and the relative of one of the cops killed. The defence
was not allowed to present evidence that the special bailiff had
publicly claimed "I am managing this case and I know what I am
about. These fellows are going to be hanged as certain as death."
Not surprisingly, the accused were convicted. Seven were sentenced to
death, one to 15 years' imprisonment.

An international campaign resulted in two of the death sentences
being commuted to life, but the worldwide protest did not stop the US
state. Of the remaining five, one (Louis Lingg) cheated the
executioner and killed himself on the eve of the execution. The
remaining four (Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph
Fischer) were hanged on November 11th 1887. They are known in Labour
history as the Haymarket Martyrs. Between 150,000 and 500,000 lined
the route taken by the funeral cortege and between 10,000 to 25,000
were estimated to have watched the burial.

In 1889, the American delegation attending the International
Socialist congress in Paris proposed that May 1st be adopted as a
workers' holiday. This was to commemorate working class struggle and
the "Martyrdom of the Chicago Eight". Since then Mayday has
became a day for international solidarity. In 1893, the new Governor
of Illinois made official what the working class in Chicago and
across the world knew all along and pardoned the Martyrs because of
their obvious innocence and because "the trail was not fair".

The authorities had believed at the time of the trial that such
persecution would break the back of the labour movement. They were
wrong. In the words of August Spies when he addressed the court after
he had been sentenced to die:

"If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out
the labour movement . . . the movement from which the downtrodden
millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation
-- if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a
spark, but there and there, behind you -- and in front of you, and
everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot
put it out."

At the time and in the years to come, this defiance of the state
and capitalism was to win thousands to anarchism, particularly in the
US itself. Since the Haymarket event, anarchists have celebrated May
Day (on the 1st of May -- the reformist unions and labour parties
moved its marches to the first Sunday of the month). We do so to show
our solidarity with other working class people across the world, to
celebrate past and present struggles, to show our power and remind
the ruling class of their vulnerability. As Nestor Makhno put it:

"That day those American workers attempted, by
organising themselves, to give expression to their protest against
the iniquitous order of the State and Capital of the propertied . .
.

"The workers of Chicago . . . had gathered to resolve, in
common, the problems of their lives and their struggles. . .

"Today too . . . the toilers . . . regard the first of May as
the occasion of a get-together when they will concern themselves with
their own affairs and consider the matter of their emancipation."

Anarchists stay true to the origins of May Day and celebrate its
birth in the direct action of the oppressed. Oppression and
exploitation breed resistance and, for anarchists, May Day is an
international symbol of that resistance and power -- a power
expressed in the last words of August Spies, chiselled in stone on
the monument to the Haymarket martyrs in Waldheim Cemetery in
Chicago:

"The day will come when our silence will be more
powerful than the voices you are throttling today."

To understand why the state and business class were so determined
to hang the Chicago Anarchists, it is necessary to realise they were
considered the "leaders" of a massive radical union movement. In
1884, the Chicago Anarchists produced the world's first daily
anarchist newspaper, the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung. This was
written, read, owned and published by the German immigrant working
class movement. The combined circulation of this daily plus a weekly
(Vorbote) and a Sunday edition (Fackel) more than
doubled, from 13,000 per issues in 1880 to 26,980 in 1886. Anarchist
weekly papers existed for other ethnic groups as well (one English,
one Bohemian and one Scandinavian). As Martyr Oscar Neebe clearly
argued, "these are the crimes I have committed: I organised trade
unions. I was for reduction of the hours of labour, and the education
of the labouring man, and the re-establishment of 'Die Arbeiter
Zeitung', the workingmen' paper."

Anarchists were very active in the Central Labour Union (which
included the eleven largest unions in the city) and aimed to make it,
in the words of Albert Parsons (one of the Martyrs), "the
embryonic group of the future 'free society.'" The anarchists
were also part of the International Working People's
Association (also called the "Black International")
which had representatives from 26 cities at its founding convention.
The I.W.P.A. soon made headway among trade unions, especially in the
mid-west and its ideas of direct action of the rank and file and of
trade unions serving as the instrument of the working class for the
complete destruction of capitalism and the nucleus for the formation
of a new society became known as the "Chicago Idea" (an
idea which later inspired the Industrial Workers of the World
which was founded in Chicago in 1905).

This idea was expressed in the manifesto issued at the I.W.P.A.'s
Pittsburgh Congress of 1883:

"First -- Destruction of the existing class rule,
by all means, i.e. by energetic, relentless, revolutionary and
international action.

"Second -- Establishment of a free society based upon
co-operative organisation of production.

"Third -- Free exchange of equivalent products by and between
the productive organisations without commerce and profit-mongery.

"Fourth -- Organisation of education on a secular, scientific
and equal basis for both sexes.

"Fifth -- Equal rights for all without distinction to sex or
race.

"Sixth -- Regulation of all public affairs by free contracts
between autonomous (independent) communes and associations, resting
on a federalistic basis."

In addition to their union organising, the Chicago anarchist
movement also organised social societies, picnics, lectures, dances,
libraries and a host of other activities. These all helped to forge a
distinctly working-class revolutionary culture in the heart of the
"American Dream." The threat to the ruling class and their
system was too great to allow it to continue (particularly with
memories of the vast uprising of labour in 1877 still fresh. As in
1886, that revolt was also meet by state violence). Hence the
repression, kangaroo court, and the state murder of those the state
and capitalist class considered "leaders" of the movement.

The Chicago anarchists, like all anarchists, were applying their
ideas to the class struggle. They were forming unions organised and
animated with the libertarian spirit. They saw that anarchism was not
a utopian dream but rather a means of action -- of (to use Bakunin's
words) "creating not only the ideas, but also the facts of the
future itself" by means of direct action, solidarity and
organising from the bottom up. That was why they were effective and
why the state framed and murdered them.

On the anniversary of the first May Day, we must apply our
anarchist ideas to everyday life and the class struggle, inside and
outside industry, in order to make anarchism a possibility. As
Kropotkin put it, "anarchism was born among the
people; and it will continue to be full of life and
creative power only as long as it remains a thing of the people."

Reclaim the anarchist spirit of May Day. Make everyday an
International Day of solidarity and direct action!

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Comments (4 of 4)

This May 1st in the US will be a special one. For the first time in many years May Day rallies of some significance will be taking place.

We will be celebrating international workers day globally. Here in the US we will not only be celebrating May Day, we will also be fighting for immigrant rights all across the country.Some of these protests will be of a direct economic nature (such as strikes and boycotts), other much more of general rallies and protests. Either way, workers, both native and foriegn born, will be making a working class statement on this May Day 2006.

On this May 1st, let us remember the immigrant Haymarket Maytrs 120 years ago who sacrified with their lives in the struggle for the 8 hour day and for the liberation of the working class from tryanny.

Let us also remember and honor all the East and Southern European immigrants who came to the US a century ago and fought for a better life and inclusive unionism. And let us not forget our African-American sisters and brothers, many who were brought to the US in chains and shakles, and continue their fight for real and meaningful equality and freedom.

And on May 1st 2006, let us honor and support all the new immigrants who are struggling, as those in the past, for a new and better life.

From one generation to the next. From one race of worker to the next, our dreams, our desires and struggles will always be the same.

On April 28th Workers at Amersino voted whether to join the Industrial Workers of the World. Throughout April, the boss made threats to fire the workers and close the warehouse. He bribed workers to not vote for the union. After weeks of this anti-union activity the boss unsurprisingly manipulated the election. Several of the votes were taken from managers or workers that do not work at that location. Also, around 10 pro-union worker's votes were withheld on the account that the boss claims they do not work at that location.

On April 29th, a day after the rigged election, two IWW activists in the shop were suspended without just cause. The Union workers walked out declaring that the group would not work unless the two workers return to the job. The boss quickly brought in scabs to replace the union workers, and laid hands on one union worker, though he backed off when confronted on it. Though many scab workers were talked out of work on Saturday we expect a full load of scabs again on Monday.

Support the Locked Out Amersino workers! On MAYDAY take a stand for justice at work and join our picket line!

5:30 AM till noon -- 161 Gardner Street between Metropolitan & Meadow
in Brooklyn (Greenpoint).
L train to Grand St. walk east on Grand over bridge and right on Gardner.

Or call Amersino at 718-821-3388 or fax 718-497-9550 demand returning the 2 fired workers to their jobs (see below) along with an end to violations of minimum wage and overtime laws, and respect from the boss.

"To understand why the state and business class were so determined to hang the Chicago Anarchists, it is necessary to realise they were considered the 'leaders' of a massive radical union movement. "

Except that Adolf Fischer and George Engel weren't union organizers and didn't support the proto-anarcho-syndicalist strategy of Albert Parsons and others. Fischer and Engel thought that unions could not be instruments of revolutionary struggle because of their bureaucratic structure.

In 1871, Karl Marx wrote that governments use war as a fraud, a ‘humbug, intended to defer the struggle of the classes’. In 1914, that fraud was so effective that not only most workers but also most Marxists supported their respective nation’s rush to war. Ever since then, governments have used war to defer class struggle and prevent revolution. But this strategy cannot last forever.[1]

All too often, we on the Left attempt to prematurely analyze objective reality based on what we see as the expression of an internal contradiction, without thoroughly investigating, understanding or appropriating the internal factors, even at the level of perceptual knowledge. [Italiano]

An analysis of the Paris Commune, using a new Leninist book as its basis. Indicates what lessons we can learn from it, while correcting various Leninist myths about anarchism in the process. Also discusses how Leninism distorts both anarchist and Marxist perspectives on the Commune and the state.

Anarchism is today finally emerging out of its long held position as ‘the conscience of the workers’ movement’, as the eternal critic of Leninism and state centred politics. It long took the side of the working class against the Party, a position Lenin mocked when he wrote: “The mere presentation of the question—"dictatorship of the party or dictatorship of the class(1); dictatorship (party) of the leaders, or dictatorship (party) of the masses?"—testifies to most incredibly and hopelessly muddled thinking....to contrast, in general, the dictatorship of the masses with a dictatorship of the leaders is ridiculously absurd, and stupid.”(2) Interestingly this was not written about anarchists, but rather about the position held by a Dutch-German Marxist tendency that was part of the Comintern. This tendency and others comprise what is known as ‘left-communism’.